Morocco Expands Maritime Borders, Spain Seeks Agreement on Territorial Waters

Project No. 37-17 and Project No. 38-17. These are the two texts that the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Moroccan Parliament approved on Monday, December 16. Morocco, through the approval of these two texts, defines its maritime borders with Spain and Mauritania and declares its sovereignty over the territorial waters of the Sahara, it is specified.

For Nasser Bourita, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, these two texts are "historic" and "sovereign", in the sense that the 12 miles of territorial waters will be delimited, in addition to the 200 miles of the exclusive economic zone and the 350 miles of the continental shelf. The objective is to adapt Moroccan laws to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

On the Spanish side, the government of Pedro Sánchez "has opted for prudence - given the importance of Rabat in immigration control - but without hiding that it expects negotiations with Morocco to settle this issue", notes El País. Fernando Clavijo, representative of the Canarian Coalition in the Senate, has presented a written question to the upper house. He asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation to clarify the government’s position on the Moroccan measure to delimit its maritime space "unilaterally".